Microsoft revamps its Windows Mobile operating system

To make his pitch for the new more user-friendly Windows Mobile, Microsoft’s Scott Rockfeld talks about the time his smart phone dropped four stories down an elevator shaft, taking with it photos of his new child.

With the Windows Mobile revamp that Microsoft introduced Monday, Rockfeld says, a situation like that should no longer be a problem.

During a speech at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced a new backup service called My Phone for Windows Mobile phones, a marketplace for Windows Mobile applications and a new, more “finger-friendly” version of the Windows Mobile operating system.

The announcements come as several reports show that Windows Mobile has lost ground in the smart phone market to competitors, including Apple’s iPhone.

One reason: Smart phones have moved from the office to the home, where Windows Mobile is perceived to be weakest.

Indeed, in an interview last month, Robbie Bach, the president of Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices Division said, “Most of our strength comes from what people have traditionally seen as the business side, and Apple’s strength has come from what you would call the media side. The question would be as those forces collide, how do things play out?

“You will see us move from being perceived as a business phone, moving into more general-purpose and consumer phone.”

The new Windows Mobile 6.5 operating system has several features that should make it easier to use.

For instance, clicking on the start menu – which in previous versions of Windows Mobile brought up a list of links to select from – now brings up a screen of hexagon-shaped icons, which users can customize.

Why hexagons and not, for instance, the squares associated with the main menu of the iPhone?

Rockfeld, the director of Microsoft’s Mobile Communications Business, said hexagons are closer to the shape of the tip of a finger and therefore useful on a touch phone.

A new lock screen also now features items that a cell phone owner needs to take action on, such as upcoming calendar items and missed calls. With one click, the application opens immediately.

A new mobile version of the Internet Explorer browser includes a box in the corner of the browser that shows users where they are in the context of a Web site page as they navigate around it.

The new mobile operating system is also designed to link up with Microsoft’s push to emphasize Windows as a platform that bridges the PC, the Internet and the phone.

In fact, Rockfeld and other Microsoft executives are now referring to phones running the company’s operating system simply as “Windows phones” rather than “Windows Mobile phones,” a nomenclature that Rockfeld said was redundant.

So, the new Windows Mobile is set up as a platform for online services, such as My Phone (which backs up contacts, text messages, videos and photos) and a new online store, Windows Marketplace for Mobile, which users can access to download applications for their Windows Mobile phones.

Many of the new features resemble those that already exist on competing mobile operating systems.

Last week when Microsoft released some details of My Phone after the My Phone Web site went live, the reaction was largely negative as commenters said the service too closely mimicked competing offerings, including one from Apple.

But Rockfeld said the offering had been misinterpreted as a syncing service and not as a service that was designed to “back up and restore.”

He added that Apple’s offering, called MobileMe, was itself not as innovative as it was perceived to be.

“We get that a lot,” he said. “MobiComp (a company Microsoft acquired in 2008) has been doing this for a few years.